A-Infos (en) Italy, UCADI #196: "Constitutional coup d'état" in Germany (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

In the interim between the end of the legislative session and the 
installation of the new Bundestag, resulting from the elections of 23 
February 2025, by unanimous decision of the parties present in the 
outgoing Parliament, a constitutional amendment was approved that 
presumably would not have found the necessary majority in the new 
Parliament. With the approval of the constitutional revision bill no. 
20/15096 proposed by the SPD and CDU/CSU, the so-called "debt brake" 
(Schuldenbremse) was removed, rewriting Articles 109 and 115 of the 
Basic Law (Grundgesetz, GG), and introducing the new Article 143h. There 
were 512 votes in favour and 206 against; subsequently, in the plenary 
session of March 21, the Bundesrat approved the measure, with a majority 
of more than two-thirds, 53 votes in favor and no votes against, 
although four Länder abstained: Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, 
Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
The Schuldenbremse was introduced in 1969 in Germany and then extended 
through the country's action within the European Union to other states 
such as Italy after the financial crisis of 2007 which approved the 
constitutional law 1/2012 ("Introduction of the principle of balanced 
budget in the Constitutional Charter") which in 2012 amended articles 
81, 97, 117 and 119 of the Constitution, inserting the principle of 
balanced budget into the Charter.
This law, which came into force on 8 May 2012, has however been applied 
since 2014.
The reform launched by the German Parliament allows for the delegation 
of compliance with the debt rule with reference to defence expenditure 
and expenditure for security policies exceeding 1% of nominal GDP; the 
establishment of a special fund of 500 billion euros for the 
modernisation of the country's infrastructure (electricity grids, 
hospitals, roads, railways) and for achieving climate neutrality by 
2045; the easing of the debt rule with reference to the Länder, by 
extending to the regional level the structural debt option already 
envisaged for the Bund. The principle of balanced budget must in any 
case be considered to be respected in the event of overall debt within 
0.35% of nominal GDP.
When this has occurred, it deserves some considerations of method and 
merit. With regard to the procedure adopted for the approval of the 
measure, we note that the reform was approved in the Bundestag with the 
votes of CDU/CSU, SPD and Greens and opposed by the liberals, AfD, Linke 
and the party of Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) and therefore would not have 
had sufficient votes in the composition of the new Parliament. Hence the 
decision to carry out the approval procedure before the uncertain 
outcome of the new elections. On the merits, the reform, justified by 
the change in the scenarios at a geopolitical level and aimed at the 
rearmament of Germany, replaces the investment expenses for the climate 
with those relating to rearmament. In this way, the aim is to overcome 
the economic phase by reconverting a large part of the automotive sector 
to war production but it is also used when this is happening to invest 
in infrastructure, investments made necessary due to the degradation of 
the country's infrastructure with regard to both roads and railways, and 
the entire industrial apparatus. In other words, the ordoliberal 
policies of wage understanding and austerity have ended up showing their 
limits, leading the country into recession with the lack of availability 
of low-cost energy caused by the war and the interruption of economic 
relations with Russia.
On the other hand, the problem had already become apparent with the 
extraordinary expenses made necessary by the Covid emergency and the 
2003 federal court ruling on the transfer of the authorization of the 
indebtedness for the pandemic emergency of the expenditure from one end 
of the budget to the other, which prohibited additions to the budget 
during the financial year already started, as well as authorizations for 
indebtedness beyond the fiscal year of reference.
It follows that it will be possible to spend in deficit with respect to 
defense spending; federal spending for civil protection and intelligence 
services; spending for the protection of information systems and 
assistance to states attacked in violation of international law. The 
expansion of spending beyond defense was necessary to obtain the consent 
of Alleanza 90 and Verdi to the measure.
The indebtedness of the Länder must in any case satisfy the principle of 
balanced budget (enshrined in paragraph 1, sentence 1, of the current 
Article 109 GG), provided that, as a whole, it does not exceed 0.35% of 
the nominal gross domestic product.
The new Article 143h, introduced by the measure under consideration in 
the Basic Law, authorizes the Federal Government to establish a special 
fund to meet the investment needs of the Federal Government, the Länder 
and local authorities for the modernization of Germany's infrastructure. 
The special fund may be provided with credit authorizations for a total 
of up to 500 billion euros, for which the application of the debt brake 
rule pursuant to Article 109, paragraph 3, and Article 115, paragraph 2, 
of the Basic Law is excluded. The duration of the investment 
authorization of the special fund is limited to twelve years. From the 
total endowment of the special fund, the provision prescribes that: 100 
billion euros flow into the Climate and Transformation Fund, which will 
be used to achieve climate neutrality by 2045; 100 billion euros are to 
be made available to the Länder for investments in the relevant 
infrastructure. In this regard, the provision specifies that the Länder 
report to the Bund on its use and that the Bund is authorised to verify 
its appropriate use.
The explanatory report specifies that, in the area of infrastructure, 
the resources of the fund may be used to finance, in particular, 
investments referred to in Articles 10, paragraph 3, no. 2, sentence 2 
of the Budget Principles Act. These are investments in the following 
areas: civil protection, transport infrastructure, hospital facilities, 
energy infrastructure, education infrastructure, care facilities, 
facilities for scientific activity, as well as research, development and 
digitalisation.
Thus a law and a constitutional reform measure have become the 
equivalent of the law on war credits approved by the German socialists 
before Germany entered the war in 1914. The only difference is that this 
is a measure with multifaceted aspects including those relating to the 
economic recovery and infrastructural development of the country, with 
the result that other countries such as Italy remain bound by the dogma 
of the balanced budget imposed by Germany, having inserted it into the 
Constitution, while the Germans free themselves of ties and bonds to 
relaunch their economy in crisis in the desperate attempt of the elite 
in power to maintain the government of Europe and its supremacy.
It is time for the entire Italian political class to reflect and act, 
not allowing themselves to be imposed with choices that they are then 
forced to regret.

G.L.

https://www.ucadi.org/2025/04/28/colpo-di-stato-costituzionale-in-germania/
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